UK engineering giant Rolls-Royce has unveiled a nuclear space microreactor concept model that is part of a UK Space Agency backed research programme to deliver an initial demonstration of a UK lunar modular nuclear reactor.

The company, whose small modular reactor division is developing land-based nuclear plants, said its plans to have a reactor ready to send to the Moon by the early 2030s.

In March 2023, Rolls-Royce secured funding of £2.9m (€3.3m, $3.6m) from the UK Space Agency, backing its research into how nuclear power could be used to support a future Moon base for astronauts. Technologies presented at the recent UK Space Conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland, were the culmination of this year’s research